Featured Member Archive

GRAND OPENING IN SOUTH SIDE WORKS!!!!!

FEBRUARY 13th, 2012

Business Name: Steel City Mongolian Grill LLC.  DBA—bd’s Mongolian Grill

Business Owners:Seshu Pulivarthi (Managing Director), Kranthi Kalagara, Srikrishna Tateneni, Jacob Verghese, Rama Paluri, Suresh Reddy, Rajesh Koneru, --Investor-Owners  Mark Seemiller (Operations Director-Managing Partner)

When did you open?  Tentative opening is 02/13/12

Did you make any renovations to your South Side space?  Yes, considerable renovations as the existing property was a former retail site.

Why did you choose South Side for your business? Strong traffic, high energy area with solid demographics.

What is your business story? – mission? – motto? Since 1992, bd's Mongolian Grill® has been delivering unique, interactive dining experiences. Our "You Rule the Experience" philosophy gives guests ownership in choosing their own ingredients from a great variety of choice meats and seafood, fresh vegetables, crisp salads, and flavor-packed sauces and spices. The food is then prepared by expert grillers on a 600° 7-foot grill. You can follow us on Facebook.


What do you feel is/will be your key to success? High Energy and interactive dining experience

What do you want others to know about you/your business? bd’s—Be Different, Be Distinctive

What is the ultimate goal for your business? To provide a unique dining experience and grow within the area.

Do you have a target clientele? Everyone loves the uniqueness of the concept.—Who doesn’t like to create their own meal….

Business Name: Commonwealth Press

Business Owners: Shannon and Dan Rugh

 When did you open? Started in our south side basement in 2001

Did you do any renovations? Nothing heavy, but we turned our basement into a printshop, then turned the loft above the beer distributor into a printshop, then turned the current store on carson into a printshop....then moved all of our production to our current warehouse on wharton - which we turned into a printshop. Its was in poor shape so it took the most time/money/elbow grease to date - but its great to be able to print standing upright and not having to crawl under or over each other.

Why did you pick South Side? I live here. I own a house here. I am raising my kids here. my commute to work is 167 steps (I've counted)

What is your business story/motto/mission? Story: Started the idea of cwp while in grad school at duquesne - the company I worked for went under as I graduated - I made cwp my full time job focusing on web design and eventually screen printing. con-ned my wife into joining me as 50/50 partners. Grew our business and family at the same rate.

motto: work hard, live free.

mission: aiming to be a young mom and pop with a vested interest in our local community.

What is your key to success? a unique view and down to earth approach in an amazingly supportive community

What is something no one knows about you/your business? Shannon plays the bassoon

What is the ultimate goal for your business? to monitor our growth - to be large enough to handle any job we would like to work on without losing all the things we love about being a small business